Artist Bio

Grace Nkem is a Nigerian-Russian painter from Tver who studied Art History at Columbia University and now lives and works in New York City. In her work she grapples with the ills of social alienation, mass digitization, and globalism, ironically noting that she owes her very existence to the latter of the three.

Formally her paintings are inspired by twentieth century figurative painting, twenty-first century digital painting, and the internet writ large, where, in the artist’s own words, “all images seem to exist at once.” Leaning heavily into luminous, contrasting color palettes and crisp atmospheres, Nkem brings together disparate images through free association, noting that it takes very little prompting for the human eye to dive into metaphor; when objects are put beside one another in a picture, a connection inevitably arises between them. Meaning in her work is therefore produced according to both the internal logic of her paintings’ visual language and the social context they are viewed in.

Nkem is unabashedly open about her deep interest in late twentieth and twenty first century cultural critics like Ta’Neshi Coates, Mark Fischer, Hito Styerl, Nick Land, and Jean Baudrillard. Nonetheless, rather than produce commentary her work asks viewers to tease issues out for themselves.

Nkem’s main goal is to produce artwork that rewards sustained attention as she works through themes that weigh heavily upon the modern psyche: mass hysteria, truth and untruth, racial antagonism, class consciousness, the dissolution of consensus reality, the spectre of terrorism, compounding loss of cultural history, rampant wealth inequality, the tyranny of the digital, and a cultural preoccupation with perceived social decay.

Exhibitions

2022, Gallery Particulier at Gowanus Open Studios, Brooklyn, NYC
2022, 8th Street Art Garage at Gowanus Open Studios, Brooklyn, NYC
2022, Flight of the Butterfly, Aug 5 – 14, Van der Plas Gallery, 156 Orchard Street, NYC
2022, Childrens Play Area, curated by Srishti Dass, Brooklyn, NY
2022, Exhibition and Live Painting Demo at FATA Fund’s “Word,” at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, Brooklyn, NY
2022, A Night of Artists at Creator Casa, Brooklyn, NY
2022, *77* event at Mi Casa, Bedstuy, Brooklyn, NY
2022, “Awesome House Exhibition,” Gallery Particulier ℅ Awesome House, Brooklyn, NY
2021, 8th Art Garage Inaugural Exhibition, in conjunction with ‘Arts Gowanus Open Studios,’ Brooklyn, NY
2019, “Relay,” curated by Caroline Walliss, Louise McCagg Gallery, Barnard College, New York, NY
2017, “Telephoto,” Columbia University, Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
2017, “Codex,” Columbia University, Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
2016, “Art at the IRC,” Columbia University Intercultural Resource Center, New York, NY
2016, “Acoustics of a Streetlamp,” Columbia University, Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
2015, Great Oak Gallery Student Art Show, GOHS Auditorium, Temecula, CA